Illinois...

[Molpet]

@Molpet
What are the chances of a 4 month old turkey surviving the night in a tree? (We have raccoon, owls, opossum, fox, and coyote.) My male could not be located until after dark. He's about 25' up in our catalpa tree. I grabbed my son's long 9' stick and banged on a couple branches (way too low to even come close), but the bird isn't going to budge. I called with my treat bucket- which got his attention - but only his head moved to look at us. If I attempt to climb or throw something or power washer, I fear injury. If not human injury, then a frightened, x-large turkey may come blindly tumbling out of the tree. I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

He's going to have one scary night. It's so odd because this year's group either puts themselves away or waits by the door until I tell them to go in. I didn't go out until 8pm, so perhaps if I found him sooner, I could have used the remaining daylight to encourage him down. My lesson learned. Hope he makes it.....


(@homeschoolin momma - I already know your bad luck.)

Well mine were good for a couple years, before the owl found them.

 

[BReeder!]

Are you turning that boy of yours into a Pyro?
I couldn't resist....

Definitely supposed to say logs instead of kids. Darn swipe text!

 

[BReeder!]

Managed to remove the most difficult limb from the maple tree out back today. There's just the last 5ft piece of attached to the trunk, which still poses a challenge to remove since it could hit the sunroom when if it bounces when it falls or rolls the wrong way. I'll rope it up though and then bring it down. The section we removed today had 3 ropes on it. It weighed over 1000 lbs I estimate and was right over the sunroom and our master bedroom. DW (all 120 lbs of her) and I managed to suspend it in the air over the sunroom, trim all the smaller (some will over 10ft long) branches off while standing on the roof, spin it 90 degrees to clear the sunroom, and then gently lower it down and set on the ground. Shortly after that my chain got dull so I couldn't remove the last bit nor finish cutting up the logs intro shorter pieces too stack. That will be tomorrow's post-work task.

 

[Faraday40]

Turkey survived the night. He was calling to his buddies while trying to get inside the coop for morning breakfast.

Dumb turkey !

 

[Molpet]

Turkey survived the night. He was calling to his buddies while trying to get inside the coop for morning breakfast.

Dumb turkey !

Glad he made it. I have 1 left from April that sleeps in the trees, ...about 30 died from weather, coccidiosis (I have gone through 4 packs of corid) and owls.
Others that are left are:
2 from early June I had in house.
1from late June (hatched by a chicken and goes into the coop), 2 I had in house.
2 from July (turkey takes them into a coop) and
5 from August left outside free range.

So 13 poults left

 

[Molpet]

Congratulations

It was a long day, but DS was very pleased with his presentation at the state fair. He earned Reserve Grand Champion out of all the computer projects. (He designed and coded his own video game.) Very impressive for an elementary kid to do that well. There's joy under that mask.

View attachment 2799125
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He worked very hard on several projects this year. As always, there was the crunch time right before they were due. But like every year, there's also that big sense of accomplishment after the fair. All the kids truly love showing off what they learned and sharing their knowledge with the judges.

I really like how 4H has given him many opportunities to explore technology. In addition to his chickens (science-related projects), he also tried out photography, cooking, and several types of art. Of course it's the experiences on computers, coding, robotics, etc. that really interest him.
View attachment 2799137
We always joked that our silkie, MaiMai, was blessed with beauty (and not much else -like intelligence). The poultry judge agreed. This was our 1st year bringing a chicken. Due to the worry of bio-security and hassle of quarantine, we never showed. However, this was a "show and go" due to Covid. The exposure to other chickens was minimal, and we still did 14 days of quarantine afterwards before allowing the 2 hens to rejoin the flock. DS's Modern Game got a blue ribbon. Of course she would probably have done better if we brought her piano to play.
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Have there been any problems with people taking the wrong animals?

https://www.facebook.com/258531931668915/posts/967443134111121

 

[BReeder!]

Congratulations



Have there been any problems with people taking the wrong animals?

https://www.facebook.com/258531931668915/posts/967443134111121

Don't they have locks on the cages? I recall seeing locks when we went to the Sandwich Fair in the past.

 

[Faraday40]

Have there been any problems with people taking the wrong animals?

https://www.facebook.com/258531931668915/posts/967443134111121

That's so weird. No locks on cages, but how would someone not know their own chicken?

We only did a "show & go" so we were with our chickens the whole time. (I preferred NOT to use the cages provided. )

 

[Faraday40]

Enabler alert

Today Farm & Fleet in Montgomery, IL has $1.50 pullet bins (RIR, BA, BR) and Cornish Cross for under $1 ea. (Can't remember if it was $0.75 or $0.89 ea)

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Enabler alert

Today Farm & Fleet in Montgomery, IL has $1.50 pullet bins (RIR, BA, BR) and Cornish Cross for under $1 ea. (Can't remember if it was $0.75 or $0.89 ea)

Romeoville also had them the other day.